Reviews - Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

REALLY slow. Some chapters also felt unnecessary (why do I care about Truman Capote?). The family is just fascinating though, and the Gloria chapters are the best. Epilogue sealed it.

gjs8799's review

3.0

This was an interesting book, but I wish it had been a bit more linear. It is not a complete biography of the Vanderbilt family, but I thought the authors' intentions were to highlight members that illustrated the rise and fall of the family. However some members were mentioned in short sections that were utterly disconnected to other parts of the story, and it just felt unpolished somehow.

I really enjoyed the depictions of wealthy women during the Gilded Age and the honest depiction of prejudice and discontent.

momosteele's review

5.0

informative reflective medium-paced

pixiegold's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective medium-paced

horsemullet's review

4.0

informative reflective fast-paced

sarahwatanabe's review

3.0

3 stars

By Anderson Cooper, a look at the family history and legend of the Vanderbilt family. This was honestly a fine book I just don't think I personally found this legend of history interesting. Certain family members were very interesting such as Alva Vanderbilt and Little Gloria but others I did not find as compelling. Might have been due to the audiobook format but the family tree got really confusing and though it was relatively linearly written the whole picture was unclear. More memoir-like than originally thought so if you want a more historical view (which I did) this might need to be supplemented with additional reading.

heymeggos's review

2.0

informative slow-paced

oprah_wimpy's review against another edition

3.5

informative relaxing sad medium-paced

Interesting audiobook. I could listen to Anderson Cooper talk all day.

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